Laundry treating apparatuses include washing apparatuses having only a washing function, drying apparatuses having only a drying function, and washing-and-drying apparatuses having both the washing function and the drying function. The washing apparatus and the washing-and-drying apparatus may include a tub being provided inside a cabinet, and a drum being rotatably provided inside the tub, and the drying apparatus may include a drum being rotatably provided inside a cabinet.
Generally, an introduction port, which is configured to allow laundry to be placed therein, is formed at a front portion of a main body of the laundry treating apparatus, and a door allowing the introduction port to be opened and closed is installed in the laundry treating apparatus. Additionally, when the door faces into the front portion of the laundry treating apparatus, the door may open and close the introduction port while rotating along a horizontal direction (i.e., left-and-right direction) or a vertical direction (i.e., up-and-down direction).
A structure that can open and close the introduction port of the washing apparatus by horizontally or vertically rotating the door in accordance with a user's selection has already been disclosed earlier. This is shown, for example, in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2011-0139295.
In such opening and closing structure of the door, when a rotating shaft of the door is configured as a horizontal rotating shaft or a vertical rotating shaft, a rotating shaft shifting unit, which is provided on the door, rotatably fastens (or fixes) any one of the horizontal rotating shaft and the vertical rotating shaft, which is selected by the user.
In case the user configures the horizontal rotating shaft (i.e., in case the user intends to rotate the door along the horizontal direction), the rotating shaft shifting unit is coupled to a hinge, which is installed at a lower portion of the door, so as to rotatably support the door.
At this, a problem may occur in that the rotating shaft shifting unit (i.e., one end of the rotating shaft shifting unit) cannot bear the weight of the door and becomes bent. Additionally, a problem may also occur in that, as the opening and closing of the door is repeated, the bent state or damage of the rotating shaft shifting unit may worsen.
Additionally, multiple hinge shafts are provided on the door in order to allow the door to be rotated in multiple directions (e.g., two directions). Among the multiple hinge shafts, some of the hinge shafts shall be configured to be capable of rotatably fastening the door to a cabinet of the laundry treating apparatus in accordance with the rotating direction of the door, or some of the hinge shafts shall be configured to allow the door to be detached from the cabinet. Generally, the hinge shaft is provided on the door, and a hinge shaft detachable part configured to attach or detach the hinge shaft is provided on the cabinet.
More specifically, in accordance with the rotating direction of the door, the hinge shaft configuring a rotating shaft shall be rotatably fastened to the hinge shaft detachable part, and the hinge shaft that does not configure a rotating shaft shall be removed (or detached) from the hinge shaft detachable part.
However, in accordance with the rotating direction of the door, which is configured by the user, a problem may occur in that the hinge shaft configuring the rotating shaft may be detached from the hinge shaft detachable part during the rotation of the door.
For example, in case the user wishes to rotate the door along the vertical direction (i.e., the up-and-down direction), the hinge shaft rotating the door is horizontally provided on a lower portion of the door. For example, a total of two hinge shafts may be provided, wherein each hinge shaft may be provided on each corner area of the door at the lower portion of the door. One of such two hinge shafts shall be detached from the hinge shaft detachable part, when the door is being rotated along the horizontal direction (i.e., left-and-right direction).
However, during the rotation of the door along the horizontal direction (i.e., left-and-right direction), a problem may occur in that anyone of the two hinge shafts that are intended to rotatably fix (or fasten) the door to the cabinet may be detached from the hinge shaft detachable part during the rotation of the door. In this case, another problem may follow in that the entire door may be detached from the cabinet.